be the one ⇢ s. reid

xi.

"Hello! Earth to Melanie!"

Melanie jumped in her chair due to being startled. She looked up to see Joy who was waving a hand in front of Melanie's face.

"Shit, I'm sorry. I zoned out." She told her.

It had been a couple of days since she's arrived back to San Francisco and there was really only one thing that had kept her mind turned on.

"You hardly ever zone out. You're always so focused on whatever it is you're working on. So what's been keeping your head stuck in the clouds?" Joy asked.

Melanie bit down softly on her bottom lip nervously. She hadn't really processed what had happened between her and Spencer and honestly, the two former lovers didn't talk about it afterwards.

"Well...as you know, I was on vacation for a couple of weeks right? So I got see everyone again. It was great really I had a fantastic time." Melanie started off saying.

"But?" Joy questioned, raising an eyebrow at her friend.

"There's no but. It's just uh. Spencer and I...we're back on good terms." She paused to scratch the back of her head as she tried to think about her next words. "We were hanging out days before I had to leave for San Fran and well...he kissed me."

Joy's eyes widened. "Mellie! Are you serious?"

Melanie nodded slowly before gulping softly. "Yeah but that's not the kicker though. We uh...we ended up sleeping together afterwards."

Joy placed a hand over her mouth which made Melanie place her head onto her own hands.

"I know, I know. It's terrible. But it just felt so good, Joy. Just being with Spencer in that moment." She admitted, sighing softly.

"What does Spencer think?" She asked.

Melanie shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. We haven't talked. Well...we've talked but not about that. But you know what? I'm good. Everything's good."

Joy rolled her eyes as she scoffed softly. There was no way in hell that she believed her best friend.

"Yeah, so good that you can't even focus on your work. Go do your job." She told her as she playfully hit Melanie on top of the head with the papers she had in her head.

Melanie gave her a playful glare as she walked away before laughing softly with a shake of her head.

| FLASHBACK |

The former couple laid next to one another under the covers as they practically stated at the ceiling. There were no words that any of them could possibly say to one another that could break the awkward silence. Neither of them could deny that the sex was great but it definitely wasn't something they expected to happen.

Melanie decided to be the first one to talk. She turned to her side to look at the agent.

"That was something..." she started off saying. She nervously bit down softly on her bottom lip. "I don't want this to be weird, Spence."

Spencer looked over at her and gave her a soft smile. "I remember someone telling me that it's only weird if someone makes it weird."

Melanie returned the smile. "Yeah? I wonder who said that dumbass statement."

"Hey! She's quite the intelligent woman if I do say so myself. She's one of my favorite humans. It was rough without her these last couple of years." He said softly.

Melanie frowned before letting out a soft sigh as she sat up; Spencer had done the same thing. She placed a hand on his cheek and ran her thumb along it. Her brown eyes gazing into his hazel ones was a bittersweet reminder of how happy she used to be with Spencer. The thoughts of them being together flooded into her head. 

"Spence..." she said softly.

"Just hear me out, Mells. Scratch is gone. We can live normal lives again. I mean, I know we didn't date that long when we were together but maybe that's just the problem: we didn't date long enough. I pretty much was in love with you when we started hanging out the first couple of times." Spencer began to say. "And not only that...you have your friends here and your brother. It would mean the world to us if you came back. Especially now with Barnes trying to take down the BAU, we need another fighter." 

"You got this all figured out don't you, agent?" She asked. 

Spencer gave her a soft smile. "I've been trying my best to think of something to get you back since the day you broke up with me. I get it. It's been two years but it's enough time to figure everything out." 

Melanie let out a laugh as she rested her head back onto the pillow. "Joy is going to hate me you know." 

Spencer laid back down and gave Melanie a kiss on the cheek before draping an arm around her. "Yeah, she can sue me later." 

| PRESENT TIME |

Melanie was now back at home with her laptop on her lap and a glass of wine in hand. Deciding to leave her current job wasn't the easiest decision to make. Melanie already had a hard time trying to leave her other job but when she thought about it, she had a nice time out in San Francisco but it truly wasn't home for her. She had been trying to work on her resignation letter when she had gotten a call from Luke. 

"Hey Luke, what's up?" She answered. 

"Hey baby sis. The team and I are out here for a case and was wondering if you wanted to grab some coffees?" He asked. 

Melanie looked at the time on her laptop: 9pm. She raised an eyebrow at the sudden want of coffee at this hour. 

"Older brother, I love you. I do but...I literally just got home two hours ago and it's nine at night? Why the hell do you want coffee?" She asked. 

He stayed silent for a moment. On the other end of the line, Luke's lips were pursed together as he looked into the conference room of the San Francisco Police Department where Barnes and JJ were discussing the case. Or at least that's what they attempted to make it look like. 

"You're right. I'm sorry. Maybe tomorrow? Before work? You can help us out." 

Melanie sighed softly. She hadn't told her brother yet about what Barnes had told her and Sam, or at least she thought she didn't know about that until Luke spoke up again. 

"I was already told you and Sam aren't allowed to help us on cases but Barnes doesn't have to know and she won't know at all. You're the main source we have right now, Mells and it would be a big help." Luke pleaded. 

Melanie placed her wine glass down on her bedside table to use her hands to rub her eyebrows. 

"Alright. Just text me about the case and I'll see what I can do." She told him. 

"You're the best, Mellie. I'll see you tomorrow." 

The two said goodbye to one another. She made a mental note to herself that if she had been caught helping the BAU that she would personally kick Luke's ass. 

When Luke had sent her everything she needed to know about the case, she was right on it. It seemed like there was a serial killer going around kidnapping, drugging, and killing women who were in their late twenties early thirties; and the topping on the cake was their hearts being carved out and their genitalia being scorned. 

For something like this to be happening in her area, she was surprised she hadn't heard about it. Penelope, after Melanie had texted her, had sent her pictures of the victims and they all looked pretty similar. The more she looked at each of the 5 victims, she started to realize that she kind of looked like them which only made her freak out a little and internally panic thinking she could eventually be one of the unsub's victims. 

Feeling like she was going to have a panic attack, the girl closed her laptop shut and leaned against her headboard to close her eyes. Of course she could voluntarily take herself out of the case but she had missed working with her BAU dream team and it was things like this that she knew they had to deal with on a basis. Taking a deep breath, Melanie opened up her laptop and began to do research on the girls' that had tragically lost their lives to see if she could find a common denominator that didn't have to do with their looks, personality, race, or age.